Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hafez, Kai
• Grüne, Anne

Titel

The individual: Global lifeworldly communication II

Ist Teil von

• Foundations of Global Communication, 2022, Vol.1, p.216-241

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The individual is the smallest social unit of globalization but an essential one since it probably harbours the greatest potential and risk for the global community. Though individuals can be overwhelmed by globalization, they can also make a difference as constitutive players engaged in global communication. This chapter thus illustrates how individual communication can either result in revolutionary changes in one's perspective on the world, changes that chime with collective structures, or leave individuals restricted to solitary experiences that contradict local hegemonic structures of interpretation. The internal boundaries between individual and collective opening or closing to the outside world may even undermine local cohesion. The politics of signification over globalization thus depend not only on the relationship between individuals and "masses" but also on the dominant modes of communication involved. Although sociopsychological and sociodemographic constraints, attitudes and values may play a role in individual relationships to the world, the way people observe the world, how they gain experience of contact and dialogue and how they make use of global options for action are also decisive to the generation of cosmopolitan understanding and global community building.